Science in the House

The science communication/rave collab I've been working on with Physicist and DJ Rob Appleby is going well with a recent performance at the Bluedot Festival on the Mission Control stage. For more Science in the House updates follow us on twitter:.

@SciInThehouse

 

 

 

MASH Voxel sneak

style2paint

Saw this on prostheticknowledge. Nice quick way of colouring your line art from a reference image, here's a quick go I had using one of my old drawings and a Moebius illustration as a reference.

 Try it here:
https://lllyasviel.github.io/

Science in the House

Facebook page for updates and details on when and where performances will be here

Science in the House - Project Update

Content creation going well on Science in the House project for Manchester Science Festival. Struggling to get my head around some of the particle physics the project is based on but it's a really interesting challenge. Here's some test renders etc:

New project

I've also just started working on a very exciting freelance project, no details for now but here's a couple of  test renders of very small part of it:

Armature Maya Rig

A colleague made a model in Fusion 360 of one of our armatures (from Animation Toolkit) and sent it to me to rig which I've now done for now, he's missing some hands and an IK version of the arms. Here it is rendered with a simple  aiStandard metal preset shader:

 

And in the viewport:

Maya 2017, Cam track Nuke test

Haven't posted in a while, so here's a little test I put together for a Nuke Class. Tracking the camera in Nuke and sending it to Maya with some reference mesh as an alembic cache, lighting and rendering and sending back to Nuke with AOVs for compositing. It was also an opportunity to have a proper test of rendering with Arnold and Maya 2017 so here's what I've found.

Arnold is great, but seems pretty slow and the lack of a batch renderer without the purchase of another lic is pretty much a deal breaker for education. The alternative is the new sequence render feature which basically runs in the foreground and will make your PC virtually unusable until it's done. I also couldn't find a way to quit it once you've started it, escape just quits the current frame and moves onto the next, so the only option is to force close maya.

 I really like the Arnold shaders though, aistandard has pretty much everything you need built in with support for sss etc and at a guess I would say more inputs by default than the mr shader. Certain aspects could be integrated better and I imagine they will be in the future now that it is the bundled render engine. For example having to turn off opacity when using alpha cutouts seems a bit clunky.

The Render layers workflow in 2017 is great and far more convenient to set up AOVs than the previous methods, though it may seem a bit of a pain if you are only looking for a quick beauty pass.


Here's a clip of my test, there was a frame dropped which I left because it kind of looked cool, it also slips a bit toward the end:

New website

Also got a new website portfolio thingy, having added loads to it yet, but here it is: http://jrcreative.tk/

3D Audio Reactive Visualisations

I'm just about to start working on a very interesting new project, it involves science and a return to club visuals for me after a long break. Won't say too much more until there's more definite progress, but I've started by looking into audio reactive possibilities in Maya & Unity that I could use as a live source.

I love the new M.A.S.H mograph feature in maya and it can totally work with audio, I just don't know how I can get a live feed into it, bit more research perhaps. On the up side it's very easy to use, performs well, and it's Maya so I know it:

Unity can totally do this as well, the limitation is that I can't code, so I'm fairly limited in what I can achieve (copying other peoples code).  It can take a live feed though:

Wheelchair rigging tutorial

I'm no master rigger, but a student has been trying to do this so I made a quick tutorial for it:

Pokemon

Pretty much done with the modelling and texturing, needs to work in app so I'm keeping the mesh basic:

Pokemon

Been asked to create a pokemon-like character based on a well-known scientist, here's where I'm up to, not sure what his power is yet:

Shot on film

I often hear people saying something along the lines of "oh it's all digital now" or "no-one shoots on film these days" well head on over to Kodak's website to see just some of the films shot on 35mm and you might be surprised at the list.

Nuke 10: Smartvector & Vectordistort

I find this pretty incredible and have been messing around with it a lot, so much easier than tracking combined with other distortion methods in a lot of situations. Here's a little demo, there's some tuts already out there.

WIP: Emily Williamson sculpt

Merged it all together now, could add more detail but I've not got much time and it needs to be tested in an app. Also added a stone(ish) texture.

Emily Williamson WIP

Here's a model I'm working on on for  a Manchester Science Festival project called Beacons. I need to create a 3D statue of Emily Willliamson, the founder of the RSPB. Trouble is there are no images of her anywhere, all destroyed in WW2 apparently. Basically I need to come up with a victorian looking woman in her mid 30s. It's a pretty unique opportunity to reimagine someone and quite nice to have no particular target.

Since it's not going to be animated I'm doing most of the work in Mudbox:

I've also modelled a bird, based on a robin for her to hold:

Need to keep Quicktime for your video post?

If you are on PC and have Quicktime installed you've probably already heard about the security advice to remove due to existing vulnerabilities and abandonment from Apple.

Unfortunately if you follow that advice you're going to have issues with many video apps. Premiere, After Effects, Nuke, and Resolve all have dependencies on Quicktime to varying extent so removing it altogether is a problem. Nuke for example won't even start.

The solution is to remove it and reinstall it with a custom installation and choose the 'Essentials' option. This will install all the codecs and services you require to play and encode .mov files in your software but without the apparent risks of the web or desktop player. It's probably a good idea to use your firewall to deny it web access too.

Will only take a second leaving you plenty of time to moan about apple, adobe and the weather.

7 GoPro 360 Rig

I'm looking to do some 360 video test shooting so I downloaded a design from GrabCAD here: https://grabcad.com/library/gopro-7-cams-hd-rig-1 and got it printed on the Uni's Makerbot.

Just got it back and it's looking good (garish colours aside). I Just need to figure how to put it together and come up with a solution for a tripod mount. Thinking some M2 thread, bolts & glue for joining it, but I'll need to counter sink the holes and I'm a bit nervous about drilling or melting it.

How to rig a wheel in maya

A quick technique for wheel rigging in Maya.

Karachi Visit: Back home

So I am back in the UK now, mostly catching up on sleep and will be reflecting on all the conversations we have shared with all the people we have met over the last week. There's some really talented and passionate people in Karachi, everyone we met put so much energy, dedication and ingenuity into their work.

It would have been nice if we were able to roam about a bit more and take in the sites, but in a city that size we wouldn't have got much else done. There are obviously certain dangers too, assassinations, kidnappings and robberies are quite common and armed security is everywhere. These dangers along with the increase in instability and fundamentalism since Sept '11 and what followed has all had a major effect on the Karachi way of life. Public events such as music festivals are now rare and medium to large contemporary music venues are practically non-existent on the surface.

Despite this, there are a lot of courageous creative people, who are eager for their city to progress. They are putting a lot of time, effort and thought into how they can reclaim public space and work against those that wish to hold their city to ransom with fear. The awesome Habab University of The Liberal Arts, creative venues, hubs and incubators such as Co Pakistan, The Nest I/O, and T2F and artists like the Tentative Collective, Yasir Husain and Aamir Habib are all dedicated to the progression of their city and it's people and the work they are doing is fantastic.

Social mobility is an issue, we were only there a week, and though the widening gap between rich and poor seems to be a global phenomenon, the scale in Karachi is more severe. based on limited anecdotal evidence only it would seem that education standards vary greatly and with a high bottom rung to middle class it seems it would be highly difficult to work your way up the ladder.

Education may be an issue, but like all the issues facing Karachi there are groups and individuals working to address it. Citizens Archive of Pakistan has been busy collecting stories, images and video to tell the story of the people of Karachi. They've taught in schools and are involved in a range of programs aimed at disseminating their rich archive to children. Their core aim is to promote pride and sense of identity through education.

Pakistan Science Club is a community Science group whose main resource is the passion of it's volunteers and students. PSC go into schools and teach and mentor young scientists in their own workshop in their community, they make it fun and their creations are pretty mind-blowing.

People were definitely more open to sharing their thoughts on basically anything as well, there's a lot to learn from each other in how we approach stuff, not just work and innovation, but how we communicate too.

A week wasn't enough, but I feel privileged to have been introduced to some of the creative minds of Karachi and I look forward to working with them, and to one day returning to Karachi.

Karachi visit: Dot Zero, The Nest I/O and Pakistan Science Club

Awesome day in Karachi talking to 2 tech start-up incubators The Dot Zero and The Nest well as the warmest welcome from the most passionate and prolific community-focused scientist society, Pakistan Science Club.

Kinect games that provide physical therapy for disabled children and photosynthesis water purification systems my highlights of the day.

Andy testing Wonder Tree's therapeutic games

Science and snacks at Pakistan Science Club

Karachi visit: CAP & T2F

Great day of meetings in Karachi. Spent the morning with the Citizens Archive of Pakistan http://www.citizensarchive.org/ and the afternoon with The 2nd Floor http://www.t2f.biz/. as well as representatives from the University of Pakistan and some very interesting artists. Had to cut short due to security concerns as there are protests in the city at the moment, but topics included identity confusion, holograpic projection, 3D printing, solar tech and much more besides.

Autodesk Stingray

Been having a play with this for the last couple of days. Really enjoying the link with Maya, no need to learn new interaction controls and if you're confident creating assets there it's quite a straight forward workflow.

You can create realistic shaders using Stingray PBS in Maya  and it also seems pretty straight forward to deploy to Xbox, PS4, Android, IOS, and Windows,

The big plus for people like me who don't know how to code is the flow editor. It basically allows you to set up quite complex game mechanics using a node based interface. I wouldn't say it makes building a doddle but it's certainly more intuitive than scripting, which is also available in script editor using LUA language.

Free with Autodesk education account or on monthly subscription: http://www.autodesk.com/products/stingray/overview

Bestest game in the world ever - PUNG!

 Maybe not, I made it ages ago while trying to learn a bit of Unity. You have to keep both your balls in, which might be the slogan when I port it to Xbox Live ;) Hold down left mouse to move your paddle left and right.

Click the link (you may need to dl the player): http://www.wooglie.com/iframegame.php?gameID=2310 

Fix drifting rig issues in Maya 2016

Quick tip on how to fix weird rig results in Maya 2016.

Free and easy 3D characters in MakeHuman

Think I've mentioned it before, but MakeHuman is a pretty decent tool for making 3d characters with textures and a bound skeleton if you want too. Similar to Fuse, but completely free and in my opinion and bit better.

The nightly unstable builds on the website have the newest features: http://www.makehuman.org/

Another Gif, this time inspired by Plusnet customer service.

Egg man gif

Might make some more gifs, it's quite nice to make something relatively instant.

Wheelchair access stop-frame setup

Posting this since I couldn't find anything online about setting up a stop-frame studio for a wheelchair user. It's a work in progress, but so far I've lowered the table, put a rail across the front using 25mm tube clamp upon which super clamps can be attached to mount cameras.

At the moment there's a magic arm for any-angle-of-dangle and a cam plate fixed straight to a clamp for a faster but less versatile setup. I'm also looking at remote heads for more/easier control, but since it can't be tripod mounted (floor space for chair) and neither wall or even the ceiling are an option, it would have to be mounted on the facing wall, which means it will need to be an under-slung one like this Hague one.

 That might work, but it might not offer the versatility for non-wheelchair users.

Owl WIP

Just a little owl, used fur for the feathers, no image planes just sort of evolved out of testing the limits of my new laptop. Quite like him though I think I may have seen him before. Next I'll do some better eyes and rig him.

Future web experience

Janus VR is a 3D virtual environment web browser that you can use with or without a headset. An internet you can wander around, it's also customisable so you can create your own environments and fill them with whatever you want, best to check it out.

http://www.janusvr.com/

Free real-time camera tracking software for Kinect 2.0

I've been waiting for a reason to buy the PC adapter for my kinect, think this could be it. Camera tracking, match moving, depth based keying and much more with a free lite version.



http://www.nextstagepro.com/

Using the alpha cutout in MIA Materials

Mac Pro vs HP Z840

This is obviously irrelevant if you prefer apple OS to Windows or Linux or want to use Final Cut X or some other Mac only SW, but I was recently looking at acquiring one of these and really, there's no comparison.They're roughly the same price, around the £6k mark. Z840 wins for me hands down, plus it will be a hell of lot more versatile without the need for peripheral drives, converters etc as well as being a lot easier to up grade.

So, if you're looking for something to handle your hi-res footage, render your maya scenes, colour grading etc, and have about 6 grand to spare you could do a lot worse than a z840.

Worth noting that apple are expected to refresh the Mac Pro pretty soon and it will probably come a little closer to the HP.

Mac Pro 2013

2.7GHz 12-core with 30MB of L3 cache

32GB (4 x 8GB) of 1866MHz DDR3 ECC

1TB PCIe-based flash storage

Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM

HP Z840

 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2620v3 2.4 1866 (12 cores)

2 x NVIDIA Quadro K620 2GB (4gb)

1 x 480gb ssd

1 x 1tb SATA ssd

RAM: 128gb DDR4 (8x16gb)!!!!

 

Free textures from Pixar

I haven't posted in ages, kind of slipped my mind, but here's a great freebie from Pixar, 128 free textures with bump & normal maps: https://community.renderman.pixar.com/article/114/library-pixar-one-twenty-eight.html 

My other blog

My other blog documenting a charity ride I'm doing: http://jrslejog.blogspot.co.uk/

Creative software that's free for students, educators, or everyone.

Just a list of free software I've found useful for my own purposes, but might be of use to some, I'll add more as I find them:

• Autodesk Suites including: Maya, 3DS Max, Mudbox, MotionBuilder, Smoke, AutoCAD, & many more (free for students/educators).
• DaVinci Resolve: lite, but pretty complete colour grading package that also can be used as an editing/conform tool.
• Fusion: excellent free for all (lite version) VFX/compositing package.
• RealFlow: great fluids package (free for students/educators).
• Blender: free for all 3D modelling/animation, also one of the few free 3D object and camera trackers.
• Sculptris: free for all interactive modelling, like a very basic version of zbrush or mudbox.
• MakeHuman: great easy free for all  tool for creating 3D human characters if you don't have the skills/time to model from scratch.
• UDK: game engine, free for personal, non-commercial.
• CryEngine: game engine, free for personal, non-commercial.
• Unity: game engine, free for personal, non-commercial.
• Nuke: VFX/compositing tool has free for personal, non-commercial version.
• Audacity: free for all audio editing.
• MPEG Streamclip: free for all encoder.
• RenderMan: free non-commercial version  of Pixar's render engine available in 'early 2015'.
• MeshLab: free mesh editing tool, very useful for editing dense triangulated meshes (like scans) before bringing into your 3D sw.

Not really 'creative', but worth sticking on your machine:

• Open Office Suite: free alternative to MS Office.
• Recuva: free file recovery (lite version) saved my ass a few times.
• VLC Player: free media player.
• Microsoft Security Essentials; free security suite, windows only.
• CCleaner: removes unnecessary files freeing up space, and fixes registry issues (windows).

Music video WIP - Arm shatter shot comp

Maya render and live action comped together in nuke, needs a few tweaks to the volume rays as well as the proper backplate adding in (just a grid in the meantime). Wasted a lot of time on the hand texture really as the final shot is going to be quite desaturated with crushed blacks, that along with the glowy inside hides a lot of the detail of the skin, always good to know where your ending up I guess.

Nuke releasing a non-commercial version next year

Great improvement from the PLE version, there'll still be some limitations, like no WriteGeo, no Primatte, but a lot more useful to people trying to learn the software. So that's most Autodesk products, RenderMan, and soon Nuke, to name a few, that's offering complete or nearly complete programs for non-commercial use.

More details here: http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/nuke/non-commercial/

Subsurface scattering with misss_skin_shader

Epidermal & subdermal textures painted in Mudbox.

The epidermal layer (outer skin) was painted using the projection tool with hand reference shots. This layer needed a lot of adjusting and patching due to uneven lighting in the shots. Some areas had to be cloned as they were not visible in the shots.

Before connecting to the epidermal channel it needed a lot more contrast (in photoshop) to compensate with the detail lost in the mix with the other layers.

The subdermal layer (fat, veins) is a flat pale pinky/yellow with some blue squiggly lines drawn on with the paintbrush tool and then blurred. These only show up at certain angles but add a lot of realism.

To take it further I would need a bump map for the pores, veins etc, maybe some hairs  and a bit more detail around the finger nails, I may experiment with doing the finger nails via the diffuse channel (normally for make-up, tattoos, stains etc).

Most of the difficulty is getting the weight balance between  the different layers and resisting to go really heavy on the back scatter (creates red glow in thin areas when back-lit to simulate blood under the skin). The algorithm control is useful too, use the scale conversion to compensate for scene scaling in order to get accurate back scatter etc.

Einstein head with nHair - WIP

Music video WIP 3:

music video WIP2:

WIP: music video